Job12chapter 12

Job 12:13

“With Him is wisdom and strength: He hath counsel and understanding. We not unfitly interpret these words of the Only begotten Son of the Supreme Father, so as to understand Him to be Himself 'the Wisdom and Strength of God.' For Paul also bears testimony to our interpretation, in the words, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. Who is ever 'with Him,' in that, In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Job 12:13

“With him is wisdom - Margin, correctly, “God.” However much wisdom there may seem to be with aged men, yes the true wisdom - that which was supreme and worthy of the name - was to be found in God alone. The object of Job was to lead the thoughts up to God, and to bring his friends to a contemplation of the wisdom which he manifests in his works.”

Job 12:13

“In contrast to, "with the ancient is wisdom" (Job 12:12), Job quotes a saying of the ancients which suits his argument, "with Him (God) is (the true) wisdom" (Pr 8:14); and by that "wisdom and strength" "He breaketh down," &c., as an absolute Sovereign, not allowing man to penetrate His mysteries; man's part is to bow to His unchangeable decrees (Job 1:21).”

Job 12:13

“What is the wisdom of ancient men compared with the wisdom of the ancient of days! It is but little that we know, and less that we can do; but God can do every thing, and no thought can be withheld from him. Happy are those who have this God for their God, for they have infinite wisdom and strength engaged for them.”

Job 12:14

“If He break down, there is none that can build again: if He shut up a man, there is none that can open. Almighty God 'breaks down' the heart of man, when He forsakes it; He 'builds it up,' when He fills it. For He does not destroy man's soul by consummation of war, but by withdrawing Himself from it; in that when it is left to itself, it wants nothing to its own ruin.”

Job 12:14

“He breaketh down - He alone can create, and he alone can destroy. Nothing can be annihilated but by the same Power that created it. This is a most remarkable fact. No power, skill, or cunning of man can annihilate the smallest particle of matter. Man, by chemical agency, may change its form; but to reduce it to nothing belongs to God alone. In the course of his providence God breaks down, so that it cannot be built up again.”

Job 12:15

“He withholdeth the waters - From the clouds and springs. He has control over the rains and the fountains; and when these are withheld, rivers and lakes become dry. The Syriac renders this, - “if he rebuke the waters,” supposing that there might perhaps be an allusion to the drying up of the Red Sea, or the formation of a passage for the Israelites.”

Job 12:15

“The waters - Which are reserved its the clouds, that they may not fall upon the earth. They - The waters upon the earth, springs, and brooks, and rivers. As at the time of the general deluge, to which here is a manifest allusion.”

Job 12:15

“Great droughts are sometimes great judgments: He withholds the waters, and they dry up; if the heaven be as brass, the earth is as iron; if the rain be denied, fountains dry up and their streams are wanted, fields are parched and their fruits are wanted, Amos iv. Great wet is sometimes a great judgment.”

Job 12:16

“With him is strength and wisdom - עז ותושיה oz vethushiyah, strength and sufficiency. Strength or power, springing from an exhaustless and infinite source of potency. In the thirteenth verse it is said, With him is wisdom and strength; but the expressions are not the same, חכמה וגבורה chochmah ugeburah, intelligence and fortitude, or strength in action, the wisdom ever guiding the exertions of power; but here is strength or power in essence, and an eternal potentiality. With him is every excellence, in potentia and in esse. He borrows nothing, he derives nothing.”

Job 12:16

“He governs the deceiver and sets bounds to his deceits, how far they shall extend; he also over-rules all this to his own glory, and the accomplishment of his righteous designs of trying the good, and punishing wicked men, by giving them up to believe lies. Yet God is not the author of any error or sin, but only the wise and holy governor of it.”

Job 12:16

“When Jacob by a fraud got the blessing the design of God's grace was served; when Ahab was drawn by a false prophecy into an expedition that was his ruin the design of God's justice was served; and in both the deceived and the deceiver were at his disposal.”

Job 12:17

“He leadeth counsellors away spoiled - Plundered or captive. That is, the counsels of wise and great men do not avail against God. Statesmen who promised themselves victory as the result of their plans he disappoints, and leads away into captivity. The object of this is to show that God is superior over all, and also that people are not dealt with in exact accordance with their character and rank. God is a sovereign, and he shows his sovereignty when defeating the counsels and purposes of the wisest of men, and overturning the plans of the mighty.”

Job 12:17

“The counsel of Ahithophel, one in whom this scripture was remarkably fulfilled, became foolishness, and he, according to his name, the brother of a fool. 13 , The princes of Zoan have become fools; they have seduced Egypt, even those that are the stay of the tribes thereof.”

Job 12:18

“He looseth the bond of kings--He looseth the authority of kings--the "bond" with which they bind their subjects (Isa 45:1; Da 2:21). a girdle--the cord, with which they are bound as captives, instead of the royal "girdle" they once wore (Isa 22:21), and the bond they once bound others with.”

Job 12:18

“Girdeth - He reduces them to a mean and servile condition; which is thus expressed, because servants did use to gird up their garments (that after the manner of those parts were loose and long) that they might be fitter for attendance upon their masters: he not only deposes them from their thrones, but brings them into slavery.”

Job 12:19

“He leadeth the priests inglorious, and overthroweth the mighty. The great glory of the priest is the righteousness of those that are subject to him. Whence the excellent preacher saith well to his disciples; For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord? But when the priests neglect the lives of their charge, and bring no fruit from their advancement before the presence of the Lord, what else is this but that they are called 'inglorious?'”

Job 12:19

“He leadeth princes away spoiled - That is, plundered. The word here rendered “princes” כהנים kôhênı̂ym means properly priests, and it is usually so rendered in the Scriptures. The ancient Hebrew interpreters suppose that the word sometimes also means prince. The Chaldee paraphrasist has not unfrequently so rendered it, using the word רבא to express it; Gen 41:45; Psa 110:4. In this place, the Vulgate renders it, “sacerdotes;” and the Septuagint, ἱερεῖς hiereis, “priests.” So Luther renders it, “Priester.” So Castellio.”

Job 12:20

“Who changeth the lip of the truthful, and taketh away the instruction of the aged. When the priest does not do the good that he tells, even the very word of his lips is withdrawn from him, that he may not dare to speak what he does not practise; as where it is said by the Prophet, But unto the wicked God saith, 'What hast thou to do, to declare My statutes, or that thou takest My covenant in thy mouth? Whence also he beseeches, saying, And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth.”

Job 12:20

“He removeth away the speech of the trusty - The faithful counsellor and the eloquent orator avail nothing: Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat; “God infatuates those whom he is determined to destroy.” The writer might have had his eyes on Isa 3:1-3, which the reader will do well to consult. The understanding of the aged - זקנים zekenim signifies the same here as our word elders or elder-men; which includes in itself the two ideas of seniority, or considerably advanced age, and official authority.”

Job 12:21

“He poureth contempt upon princes,.... Not on good princes, such as rule in righteousness, and decree judgment and govern their subjects according to good laws, in a mild and gentle manner, and answer to their name of free, liberal, beneficent and munificent.”

Job 12:21

“Ps 107:40 quotes, in its first clause, this verse and, in its second, Job 12:24. weakeneth the strength--literally, "looseth the girdle"; Orientals wear flowing garments; when active strength is to be put forth, they gird up their garments with a girdle.”

Job 12:22

“Who discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death. For when the several mystical truths are recognised in the secret words of the Prophets by them that believe, what else is it, than that 'deep things are discovered out of darkness?' Whence too 'Truth' Himself, speaking in parables to the disciples, saith, What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light. For when by explaining we unravel the mystical knots of allegories, then we as it were 'speak in light, what we have heard in darkness.'”

Job 12:22

“He discovereth deep things out of darkness - This may refer either to God’s works in the great deep, or to the plots and stratagems of wicked men, conspiracies that were deeply laid, well digested, and about to be produced into existence, when death, whose shadow had hitherto concealed them, is to glut himself with carnage.”

Job 12:23

“He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them,.... As he did before the flood, when the earth was tilled, and all over peopled with them, but at the flood he destroyed them at once.”

Job 12:23

“He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them - He has entire control over them. The sources of prosperity are in his hand, and at his pleasure he can visit them with famine, pestilence, or war, and diminish their numbers and arrest their prosperity. Dr. Good renders this very improperly, “He letteth the nations grow licentious;” but the word שׂגא śâgâ' never has this sense. It means, to make great; to multiply; to increase. And straiteneth them again - Margin, “leadeth in.” So the word נחה nâchâh means.”

Job 12:24

“Who changeth the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and deceiveth them, that they wander in vain where there is no way, they shall grope in the dark without any light, and He shall make them to stagger like a drunken man. For 'the heart of the chief of the earth was changed,' when the chief priests and elders of the people in Judaea set themselves to withstand Him by their counsels, Whom they beforehand proclaimed, that He was to come.”

Job 12:24

“He taketh away the heart of the chief - Suddenly deprives the leaders of great counsels, or mighty armies of courage; so that, panic-struck, they flee when none pursueth, or are confounded when about to enter on the accomplishment of important designs. And causeth them to wander in a wilderness - A plain allusion to the journeyings of the Israelites in the deserts of Arabia, on their way to the promised land.”

Job 12:25

“They grope in the dark - They are like persons who attempt to feel their way along in the dark; compare the notes at Isa 59:10. And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man - Margin, “wander.” Their unstable and perplexed counsels are like the reelings of a drunken man; see Isa 19:14, note; Isa 24:20, note. This closes the chapter, and with it the controversy in regard to the ability to adduce pertinent and striking proverbial expressions; see the notes at Job 12:”

Job 12:25

“Note, God can soon nonplus the deepest politicians and bring the greatest wits to their wits' end, to show that wherein they deal proudly he is above them. Thus are the revolutions of kingdoms wonderfully brought about by an overruling Providence. Heaven and earth are shaken, but the Lord sits King for ever, and with him we look for a kingdom that cannot be shaken.”